The present invention relates generally to methods and apparatuses for automatically forwarding telephone calls, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for automatically forwarding telephone calls under remote control.
Many office workers spend a sizable portion of their day outside their base office or away from their office telephone. For example, workers may be at other locations within their office building, outside their office building at remote sites, or in transit between sites. In all cases, there is often a need to stay xe2x80x9cconnectedxe2x80x9d with the office telephone system, having the ability to remotely receive calls that would normally go to the office phone. Call-forwarding is a common telephony service that attempts to address this need.
Today, call-forwarding is typically provided as a telephone system service by the local office/building PBX or by the telephony central office. The most basic operation is that a user can somehow signal this telephony xe2x80x9ccontrollerxe2x80x9d and cause calls going to their office phone to be redirected to another phone number.
In one typical system, an office worker activates call-forwarding by entering a sequence of button presses on the keypad and/or button set of their office telephone. This button press sequence usually includes call-forwarding on/off codes and a xe2x80x9cforward-toxe2x80x9d number. Operationally, one normally activates call-forwarding just before leaving one""s office and similarly disables call-forwarding upon returning to the office.
Existing systems enable remote control of call-forwarding as well. For example, one remotely controlled call-forwarding system requires a user to dial into a special service number that is associated with the telephony control system for their office phone. Next, the user enters required PIN codes, forwarding on/off codes, forward-to numbers, etc., using the touch-tone pad of the phone from which the user is calling. As a result, the user is able to remotely control the forwarding of the user""s telephone calls from another telephone.
Pac-Bell and Bell-Atlantic currently offer a variety of similar call-forwarding services. In one mode of operation, there are systems that provide a xe2x80x9cfollow-mexe2x80x9d service. These systems attempt to keep in touch with a user by calling the user""s phone(s) based on a pre-defined availability schedule, or by sequentially calling all phones the user has registered with the service. There is usually a voice mail drop in case the call is not answered at all.
Each of the above systems work well, but they all require the user to enter a complex sequence of codes or button-presses. Many users find this difficult to perform, and consequently do not regularly forward their telephones, which makes the overall goal of call-forwarding impossible to achieve. Call-forwarding is intended to make employees of a company reachable at almost all times. If the employees are not willing to use the system, however, the company has paid for a service it is not using and for which it is not receiving value. In today""s competitive environment, most companies will not continue to pay for services that do not add value.
The present invention is therefore directed to the problem of developing a call-forwarding system that can be remotely controlled in a simple and easily understood manner, thereby increasing the usage of call-forwarding.
The present invention solves this problem by maintaining a list or registry of special telephone numbers for a user""s telephone and, upon receiving a telephone call from one of the special telephone numbers, forwarding calls to the one of the special telephone numbers.
According to the present invention, a system for performing the method of the present invention includes a registry of special telephone numbers and a call-forwarding controller which, upon receiving a call from one of the special telephone numbers, forwards calls to the one of the special telephone numbers.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the call-forwarding controller includes a caller-ID application which identifies all incoming telephone calls and passes this information to the controller. In this case, the controller then compares the incoming call to the telephone numbers in the registry and, upon obtaining a match, activates a routine for forwarding future incoming calls to the matched telephone number.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the system includes a user interface device that enables the user to enter telephone numbers into the list via the user""s touch-tone telephone. This same interface device enables the user to specify a duration during which the call-forwarding will remain activated. If the user fails to specify a duration, the system uses default duration to deactivate call-forwarding. Examples of default durations include an end of a workday, an end of a work week, a beginning of a workday, a beginning of a work week, midnight, and five o""clock in the morning.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, the system includes a timer that is activated upon activating the call-forwarding, which timer deactivates the call-forwarding when the timer reaches a predetermined time.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, an incoming call from one of the special telephone numbers changes a state of the call-forwarding, such as from ON to OFF, or from OFF to ON. Upon changing the state, the system transmits a special tone sequence to the user, which uniquely identifies the current state.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for enabling remote control of call-forwarding from a remote telephone includes: means for enabling a user to enter a list of special telephone numbers into a database via the user""s telephone; means for identifying an originating telephone number of an incoming call; means for comparing the originating telephone number to the special telephone numbers in the list; means for forwarding future incoming calls upon receiving a match from the means for comparing to the originating telephone number; and means for deactivating the means for forwarding upon expiration of a predetermined time interval.